


Restless

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Jealousy, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-15
Updated: 2011-03-03
Packaged: 2017-10-28 21:56:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/312587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cassie doesn't understand, Ares manipulates, and Rose is Rose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in pieces originally, but was collected as a whole on the date used here.

She hated everything about the girl. From her parentage to the acts she has committed against the Titans, she cannot find anything to like about her.

So why did she dream at night of white hair? Why, when her every waking thought was consumed by a red ‘S’ and tight jeans, was she haunted by orange and blue in her sleep? What about the treacherous child pushed her body to pulse and throb, laced in anger, but undeniably full of desire?

She could imagine those lips on her skin, with their tempting pouts and crazy little smiles. She could feel the slim hands parting her legs, questing and pleasing all in one. The demigoddess could fully imagine what it would be to taste The Ravager in the throes of passion.

She came fully conscious, shuddering from the images and sensations of her sleep, and noted that the statue of Ares was glowing.

“You want her, you come court her, Brother. I won’t be your puppet for voyeurism,” she growled in the statue’s direction. In her mind, he merely laughed at her attempt to deny desire.

`~`~`~`~`

Cassie was restless, feeling like an intruder in a bed that had been hers a year ago. She did not like staying at the Tower, but this time Cyborg had asked her to. He seemed a little unhinged still, trying to assimilate all the changes, and was leaning on her. She was sure part of that was because of her parallel to Troia, as well as the fact that Robin was…odd. He had some secret, and his attempts to put Titans together had been poorly planned, it seemed.

Still, she should have just told him that she would come by again, soon, rather than agree to stay. She would find no rest in this bed, under this roof. She rolled out of her bed, grabbing the pants at the foot of it. Keeping her bare feet, she padded down to the training room, only to have to grit her teeth as she saw Rose was in there, practicing against the wooden dummy. She started to go elsewhere, but the sound of hands on wood stopped.

“Don’t go.” Rose’s voice was quiet, almost too quiet.

“You can’t want me here.” The demigoddess paused in the doorway.

“You don’t know what I want,” Rose challenged her, meeting her gaze from across the room. “Right now, I just want to show I can be civil.”

“Why? What’s your motive, Daddy’s Girl?” Cassie was very quick to aggravate the white haired witch of a warrior. Rose, surprisingly, ignored her, and picked up a flask to drink from.

“Screw yourself, Wonder Bitch,” Rose finally said, resuming her workout. Despite her antipathy toward the other girl, Cassie remained, watching the fierce interplay of limbs against the wooden arms of the dummy. For a non-speedster, Rose was blindingly fast, using moves that Cassie had only dreamed of. She was learning, little by little, to identify styles, and this was a dance of myriad martial arts. That punch was Arsenal, that one there, a bit of Troia. Her kicks went high and tight, possibly something of her father’s, but her fluidity was all Nightwing.

“What’s with the drinking thing?” Cassie asked, going to the punching bag to take her aggressions out on.

“Dulls the visions, dulls the remnants of what he did to me,” Rose supplied. “Call it a coping thing,” she sneered.

“Coping.” Cassie actually missed her next strike, throwing off her tempo. She stopped the motion of the bag, closing her eyes. (Black shirt, red S, calling on the faithful, holding out hope when she had none herself.) Her thoughts roamed through all the pain, the reasons that being here HURT. When she shook free of her reverie, she realized the room was silent. She looked around, and Rose was nowhere in sight, nor in easy earshot. She half-heartedly starting punching again, oddly upset that the girl had not remained with her so they could spar, verbally or physically.

When the gym could not offer her any solace from her wandering thoughts, she wandered the hallways once more, listening to the candid and everyday sounds of the Tower at rest. The only problem lay in the absence of certain sounds. Bart’s odd snoring was gone, as he was retired and unable to run. Raven’s incessant chanting in her meditations could no longer be heard whispering from her room. The alien sounds of Tamaran did not pour forth from the room where Starfire had lived. No funny sounds of Gar’s dreams causing him to change form unconsciously came from his room. And then there was the sheer volume of absence that Kon had left for her.

She had wandered all the way to the statue room, which had been restored since Jericho’s rampage there. Every single lost Titan was represented here, even Kon, despite the larger outdoors one. She went toward the statue with the rakish grin, only to pause, seeing white hair flowing over the back of her nemesis here at the Tower. A glance, and she saw the statue in front of the girl was Jericho himself, the one who had come so close to destroying them all. Cassie did not think the girl knew she was there, as quiet as she had been. She stayed in the shadows of the entrance, observing.

Rose was sitting on the stone floor, her knees to her chest, arms wrapped tightly around herself. She did not rock, sitting stone still there as she stared blindly up at the statue, her lips moving, but very little sound emerging. Cassie watched in curiosity, her paranoia telling her this was a ploy, some way to contact her father and betray them all.

“Damn you, Joey,” Rose said, seeming to break a trance. “If you had stayed sane, he might have.” Her voice was harsh, and she turned her face to the side, where Cassie saw an honest tear track her cheek. “He’s lost, just like you were, just like Wintergreen told me Grant was. And I’m next. That’s what they all think. They think I’m insane, or will be.” The Ravager looked up at the statue in anger. “It’s all your fault, and I can’t even make you pay for it!” The sword-wielding heroine shoved herself up to her feet, glaring at the cold statue. “I’m not going to fall again! I will not be lost to me!” She whirled to go, catching Cassie off guard and red-handed, so to speak.

The young woman they called Wonder Girl did not even see the motion of Rose pulling her swords and placing them at her throat.

“Not a fucking word, Wonder Brat,” Rose growled. “You get away with your sobbing bullshit over that boy every fucking day! I’ve got a right to my own issues, and I will not be called on it by YOU!” The venom in Rose’s voice hit Cassie like a ton of bricks. Since showing back up, they had been at odds, but now, Cassie could not help but wonder at Rose’s motivations for her side of things. Just as suddenly, the swords whipped back into their scabbards, and Rose drew in a deep breath.

“Rose…” Cassie was unsure what to say, what to do. She was not like Donna; she did not know how to look at things from another person’s viewpoint, but she felt something should be said.

“Don’t worry your pretty blonde head about it, Wonder Brat,” Rose said in a sweet voice, one that fit with her mercurial shifts of temperament. “Just don’t say anything, to me, or to the others.” And, with maddening ease, she got inside Cassie’s space and brushed their lips together, shocking the other girl with the electric skill in such a casual contact. “Catch you later,” Rose said, and it seemed almost like a promise.

`~`~`~`~`

Cassie felt pulled back to the Titans a few weeks after spying on Rose’s tantrum in the memorial room. She had gone off to try and handle some of her business, which included checking up on Donna. The former Wonder Girl was desperately trying to live up to the mantle of Wonder Woman, and not being taken seriously on so many levels. She just needed somewhere to unwind, and that meant trying, again, to pick up her life among the Titans.

She walked in through the front door to see Cyborg rewiring a security system, while Marvin and Wendy argued over the best way to link the various multimedia equipment pieces. Cyborg paused and looked at her with a tight smile; she would not have been surprised to find him gone, but was glad he had stayed to be the ‘grown-up’ Titan.

“Cassie,” he said, nonchalantly. “You staying a while?” He nodded to the duffle bag she carried.

“Thought I might,” she replied, chin up in defiance. He merely grinned, seeing the need under the brassy attitude.

“You know where everything is.” He returned to the job at hand. “And Cassie,” he called, as she started to head up to the rooms. “Welcome home.”

“We’ll see.”

`~`~`~`~`

She first became aware that the Titans had a new member by seeing one of the unclaimed rooms was claimed now. It was on the boy’s end of the hall, but the one closest to Rose’s room, a fact she notes with a touch of irritability. The few weeks she had been gone had had too many intrusions of the white haired girl in her thoughts. From worrying over Cyborg and the Titans in general being in her sway, to the occasional vivid dreams of fighting and tumbling the girl entwined, Rose has occupied too many thoughts.

Cassie heads down to the common room, noting Eddie is there, playing a video game with …

“Beast Boy!” she exclaimed, overjoyed to see him there. The game was paused almost immediately and the pair of boys looked up. Beast Boy launched himself across the room, and hugged her tight, laughing.

“You came back!” His hug was as fierce as any lion he had ever portrayed.

“For now,” she warned, but it was a faint reproach. This was where she needed to be; not at her mother’s home, not anywhere else.

“Yeah.” He grinned at her. “Vic talked me into coming home.”

“Good.” She stepped away to give Eddie a polite smile. “Good to see you too, Devil.”

“Thanks, Wonder Girl.” He went back to the game as Beast Boy joined him. “Rose is in the gym, with Eric.”

“Eric?” Cassie tried to keep her voice level. “New kid?”

“Calls himself Turmoil. Helped us out on a recent mission and looked like a good pick. He’s an empath and a fighter pretty close to Ravager in ability,” Beast Boy answered.

Cassie merely grunted; she would be wary of new people for some time to come, and anyone that willingly hung out with the white haired witch could not be that good.

She tried to tell herself it was just about being cautious when she found a reason to head down to the gym less than ten minutes later. She could hear the sounds of steel on steel, as well as muted voices. She rounded the opening of the gym and saw Rose sparring with a boy about her own age, one with sandy blonde hair and a broadsword blocked by those twin swords Cassie loathed. She focused on the boy, her eyes going wide.

“What in hell are you doing here?!” she shouted, causing both to look her way, even as they held their balance and parry positions.

“I live here?” Rose replied, even as the boy smirked.

“I’m a probationary Titan,” the boy, ‘Eric’, said, breaking from Rose. The daughter of the world’s deadliest assassin narrowed her eyes at reading the body language between the boy she had been getting to know for a week and the girl that seemed to divide her between anger and lust.

“So, Wonder Brat, what brings you here, yelling at me and my new boy toy?” she asked, casually sheathing her swords before sauntering over to get a towel.

“Look, Daddy’s Girl, I’m not here to start a fight with YOU, but don’t push it.” She spared a glance over, only to turn quickly back to Eric at seeing the white haired girl removing her shirt. She did not need any fuel for her tempestuous dreams.

“Cassie Sandsmark, you wound me with your mistrust,” Eric purred, keeping an innocent look on his face. “Why don’t you and I go discuss our mutual acquaintance in my room?” At Cassie’s crossed arms and lean against the doorway, he sighed.

“So, did I cross your territory, Wonder Brat, and take an ex?” Rose giggled, walking toward the showers. Cassie swore inwardly; she was pretty much positive the girl wiggled her hips that way just to entice her. Then she noted Eric watching, and had to bite down on her jealous instincts.

“Let’s say I wouldn’t touch him with someone else’s lips,” Cassie growled, but she did not admit who he was. “Eric, let’s go for a walk,” she invited, steel in her voice.

“Who could resist such a warm invitation?” he mocked, walking toward the door after putting away his sword.

`~`~`~`~`

The walk took the pair outside, away from the other Titans to the relative privacy of Starfire’s garden. It was flourishing, even in her absence, under someone’s care. Cassie did not speak until they were in the concealing foliage, and Eric merely glanced all around him at the grounds, as if he had not had time to explore them yet. That made Cassie grind her teeth slightly; she had vivid images in her head of why the ‘boy’ had not been outside much.

“Now, tell me first, why ARE YOU HERE?!” Cassie could not keep her voice from rising.

“Not how?” Eric taunted, his smile sly and his eyes merry. “You told me yourself, come court her for myself,” he told her in that superior way of his. Cassie folded her arms across her chest, glaring at him. A niggling thought crossed her mind, but she shoved it aside for when she was not growling at her target.

“Ares,” she began.

“Eric, please. I’m really not supposed to be here.” He patted her cheek, and she noted he wore gloves. His clothing covered him almost to his chin, and she bet he had a mask. For a god from a pantheon of lechers, he was actually fond of being fully clothed. That brought an image of Rose wheedling him out of his clothing, and that made her clench her jaw. She did not want to envision her half brother in bed with the little witch at all. She just would have been very uneasy about searching her soul for why, when they seemed made for each other in their mutual lust for violence and conflict.

“So how are you here?” Cassie asked, trying to force down her more puerile thoughts.

“When you acknowledged me, it left me a way back.” His eyes flashed with a touch of godly power. “I must thank you. Rose is a very intriguing child,” he purred. “And I have had fun this past week, testing my bounds.”

“She’s damaged goods,” Cassie warned.

“Aren’t we all, dear sister?”

`~`~`~`~`

 

After her talk with 'Eric', Cassie had to consider what she truly wanted from this point. Staying in the Tower with her brother and the white haired witch did not seem like a great idea. As she tried to meditate that night, to decide if she should go to Donna's instead, she could not settle. Her mind kept straying back to the intimacy of Eric sparring with Rose, the way the two had seem to flow from one move to the next in unison. It was very much the same way she fought Rose, as a perfectly matched pair.

She closed her eyes, blocking images of orange on blue, or youthened godlings with no more sense than lust. She reached deep within herself, like Donna had tried to teach her, and sought peace.

She heard it in the hallway then, the sound of laughing and flirting. She squinted her eyes shut tighter, trying to ignore it. Then she heard the deeply passionate moan from the girl, just before the sound of a body being pinned to the wall. A dark, deep hatred was rising in Cassie's chest as she shot up from the bed, stalked to the door and jerked it open. There was Eric, his back to her, his face buried in the crook of Rose's neck and shoulder. The white haired witch had her eye closed, one leg snaking up along Eric's thigh as he pressed her tight to the wall.

Cassie took in the sight, felt her anger flare into a full blown temper, and moved without thought. With one hand she jerked Eric off her teammate, holding him back.

"Hey, what the …" Rose's protest died at seeing the perfect visage contorted in rage, her mouth going dry at the thought of channeling that rage into other things. Eric shook himself free, smiling with utter contentment.

"I do believe the words our Wonder Girl is searching for is 'get a room'," Eric murmured, cheekily patting Cassie on the butt before snaking out a hand to take Rose's wrist. Cassie, who pinned him with a glare, blocked it.

"Eric, I suggest you go home now. I want to talk to Rose." There were threatening rumbles of danger in her voice as she said it, moving her own hand to take the other girl's wrist. Rose evaded that grip, her own face showing a puzzled anger.

"Fuck you both. I don't know what kind of alpha bitch dance you two have going on, but it's not my scene." Rose used her skills to escape both their reaches, and leave them behind, glaring at one another.

"Still blaming me for that ache you feel right now?" Eric growled, obviously disappointed at the state of affairs. "Or are you willing to admit that our tastes just happen to overlap once in awhile?"

"Shut the hell up," she snapped, going back to her room, her head spinning in confusion at her own actions and feelings.

`~`~`~`~`

Cassie noticed immediately that Rose was in none of her usual places the next morning. When Eric caught her eye and shrugged imperceptibly, she cursed herself. Eddie's question about where Rose was as he started up his computer classes did nothing to help. Unlike Tim and herself, both Eddie and Rose actually lived at the Tower, under Vic's watchful eye, with the odd help of the twins.

Cassie needed to be leaving, needed to go back to Donna's to check in with her 'sister', but she did not want to leave the Tower with Rose's whereabouts unknown. She had just stood from her perch at the counter, having finished an orange, when the security system announced a small disturbance downtown. Cassie cursed her luck, barely managing to call out orders as she headed for the door. She had just cleared the foyer when Rose appeared from the basement, with Tim. Tim cut Cassie and Eric both a hard look, before joining Vic and Gar at the vehicles. Rose was about to get on the cycle with Robin when Eric offered her a ride on his. Cassie decided to be more direct.

Rose had stiffened violently as Cassie snatched her up and into the air, headed to the disturbance.

"It's not the time or place, but I want you and me to sit down, later, and talk," Cassie admitted in Rose's ear over the wind. None of the tension left the white-haired girl's body, nor did she reply. Cassie wondered just how she was going to explain everything, and then caught herself. She wondered instead when she had started caring if Rose understood her actions

`~`~`~`~`

The battle had gone almost single-handedly to Rose. Even Eric had been pretty much useless, as the daughter of Deathstroke proved just how devastating her full anger could be. Tim had stopped Cassie and Eric both from trying to touch her at the end of the battle. He had very calmly walked into her good side's vision, and lightly touched her hand, a wrist up to block the abortive strike she began. Cassie started forward again, but this time Vic stopped her.

"Don't. Rob said she's gone full tilt into Ravager mode. He's the only one that knows her safe contact and words," Cyborg said. "He had to get Nightwing on the phone last night to find out," he added with a hint of questioning.

Eric had come over and now frowned, absently catching Cassie's openhanded strike at him.

"You had to meddle!" she hissed at the god in disguise as they walked away together.

"This is not about us, though possibly begun by us," he said. "She's almost like a disciple to me in this mode of thought. And it is not anger that motivates her now."

"Then what?" Cassie asked him, trying to calm her temper.

"Fear." He closed his eyes, thinking on the subject of their speculation. He then quirked an eyebrow at her. "I cannot get further."

"What does she fear?" Cassie asked softly, without meaning to.

`~`~`~`~`

The Titans got back to the Tower and Cassie hauled Eric out into the gardens immediately. She had a very serious look on her face, and he could feel her anger warring with softer emotions like concern.

"Go away, brother. I don't want you here," she told him bluntly, causing him to scowl. "Not right now. If you stay, I have to tell her who you are." There, she managed the one threat she could muster against him. If Rose knew he was Ares, it would ruin the game he was playing anyway. There would be no fun to be had, no joy in revealing it himself at some point in time. He started to retort, then just smiled, opening his arms to her.

"Very well, sister. For you, I shall leave." Cassie grudgingly gave him the full body hug he was seeking, admitting very deep in her soul that he had treated her fairly well, that he seemed to actually care what came about in her life. There were so few who had consistently been interested like he was. It made her close her eyes and add an extra squeeze, earning her a gentle hair stroke from him. He then moved away, walking down a path that led to Tartarus, his domain.

Once he had vanished on the mystical path, Cassie sat down on a bench to meditate. She found it oddly easy to find the peace and calm both Donna and Diana spoke of today, as if Rose's state of being was drawing all of the remaining anger out of the air. She might be the avatar of Passion, but the Truth that was Diana was instilled in her too. She had been reacting to Rose from the minute they crossed paths again, as the white haired girl drew every bit of her anger to the surface. Cassie was seeing, fully, that it dealt with an attraction she had felt ever since she and the other Titans had tried to save a younger Rose from Wade Wilson, the other Ravager. She remembered clearly that she had been the first to interfere in Wade's attempt to kill the girl.

As she opened her eyes, she found that night had fallen, and Robin was perched there, staring at her intently.

"I was wondering how long you could meditate. This is the third time I have come to check on you," the boy in red and black said. She had to smile at that; Robin being concerned enough to leave his basement project that many times was touching.

"Where's Rose?" She stood and stretched as she prepared for whatever it took to come to grips with her lust/hate for the girl.

"In the gym. As usual. But this time we're going to need to replace the equipment." He cocked his head to one side at her. "You do know she's slipped pretty deep into Ravager mode, right?"

"I'm going to go bring her up out of it; I know what she needs," Cassie said firmly.

"Should I have the surgical kit ready?" Robin asked. From anyone else, it might have been a quip, but her dearest friend on the team had not healed enough to have his humor back. She shook her head.

"Go on back downstairs, Robin." She turned her eyes up the Tower walls. "I have some talking to do."

`~`~`~`~`

Rose moved in precise patterns, following the style of her father with his broadsword, throwing herself further into the mindset of his training. Granted he had done some bad things to her, but she could see now it was just the stress, the push of events that had caused him to use her that way. Surely when he got free, he would be back to that man who loved her unconditionally, wanted only to give her the world and make her strong and keep her safe.

She threw her left sword, smiling in savage satisfaction as it embedded itself in the chest of a practically destroyed dummy. In real combat she's never go for the chest; the blade could catch too easily within the ribs, prevent her from pulling free fast enough to strike again. But right now, envisioning the dummy with long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes was very conducive to ignoring the cardinal rule and going for the heart stab.

Daddy would make it all better. She could probably figure out how to help him out of Alcatraz, but would wait for him to do it; he must have had reason to go thee, after all, since he pleaded guilty on all charges. She would just wait, putt together all the little pieces of instability in the current Titans. If one there was one thing she knew, Daddy would eventually come after them. It was too thick in his veins to eliminate the Titans, or at least shape them differently.

When the cord slipped around her, she immediately tried to free herself, angry that someone, anyone could have overcome her battle-fed paranoia.

"No, Rose," Cassie said firmly, jerking the lasso to reel Rose in. She leaned well into her gifts from Ares to kick Rose's wrist hard enough to numb it, to force her to drop her second sword. "You and I will have that little talk now."

"Get that off me, Wonder Bitch." She spoke in that intense, hissing way that had so grated Cassie's nerves, just before Rose tried to kill Raven. She noted the almost glassy look in Rose's good eye, the tension to her body, and the complete annihilation of all training equipment.

"Ravager, listen to me!" She used the code name and fell back on full command voice. She did not raise it, as she distinctly remembered Slade did not shout to get his daughter focused.

It was ingrained; Daddy had trained her to a particular tone of voice. Nightwing knew it, so did Robin. They both knew how to use it to get her focus…and now this girl, the one that she wanted dead, the one she just wanted…

"I'm here." Cassie pulled the other girl, all hard muscles and tension coiled in on itself, to her with the lasso, gripping her long hair in her free hand. Every word she had thought of paled next to a sudden urge to just kiss that viciously hard mouth. Instincts had gotten them to this point, so maybe instincts could get them out of it, Cassie hoped, jerking Rose's head closer. When their lips met, there was raw power on Cassie's part, and defiance on Rose's.

The press of jeans on the mesh armor pants, tee shirt rubbing against the odd scale of the armored shirt was as immediate a sensation in Cassie's mind as that of rose bringing her hands up to tangle in long blonde hair, almost gasping as she did relent to the kiss. Rose pressed into that kiss, sucking hard against Cassie's tongue, pulling her very breath from her it seemed as something inside snapped.

"Save me." The pitiable words came from Rose in a faint whisper, but Cassie heard and heeded them. She picked Rose up with ease, and flew them through the halls to her own room, taking her inside and hastily locking the door. Rose was alternately clinging, claiming kisses, and whispering about the things she wanted to have from Cassie. For her part, Cassie listened, even as she rid them both of the impeding clothes. To one side, the small statue of Ares looked on, its eyes eerily lit, as the girls came together fully.

`~`~`~`~`

Rose ran a finger down Cassie's stomach idly, fully aware of where she was and who had just saved her from her psychoses.

"You still hate me?" she asked, with that detached manner she had.

"No." Cassie placed a hand over Rose's. "I hate a lot of what you've done. I hate what's been done to you. I absolutely hate your father. But you…"

"Yeah?" Rose caressed the fingers of her lover.

"You, I can't hate now." Even if she could not admit anything else, that much was perfectly true for Cassie. And it seemed to be enough for Rose, as she shifted, drawing Cassie's arm over her to find sleep, safe with the girl who had saved her.


	2. Effigy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the fight with Deathstroke, Rose takes action to cut ties... or starts to

_She sits on the bed, her mother behind her. The silver brush with its soft bristles slides through her hair, separating strands into neater, silken rows. The brush is set down, and quick fingers begin to braid it deftly._

_"Such pretty hair," Lili tells her._

_"I wish it was like yours, momma," she says in reply, not liking how the white hair sets her apart from the other children in her mother's establishment._

_"It is a gift from your father, and lets me think of him well," Lili chides, and she grows quiet to let her mother have her memories untouched by childish petulance._

`~`~`~`~`

Rose, who had been called by her mother's anglicized last name Worth, her foster family's last name Madison, and most recently, that of her be-damned father's, Wilson, had often cursed her luck for being his child. Right now, in the aftermath of Deathstroke attacking her and her team and her freshly returned brother, she hated him more than ever, and could not help but turn that hate at herself. From the damn eye-patch to her hair to her costume, she felt as if all she was now was a demented clone version of him, twisted in gender and alignment, with all the capacity for becoming him if she continued to live as his effigy.

She eyed the boxes of hair dye, thinking that was the beginning, to make herself less his in appearance. She had chosen black, wanting to bring out her heritage, to show the world that she was her mother's daughter. Her mother's long-lost words echoed briefly in her mind, but Rose savagely pushed them aside. She needed to do this. Whatever image her mother had held of her father had been a lie. Her father was nothing but lies.

She had to look up as someone came into the shared locker room. Rose's nose and hearing told her it was Wonder Priss, just before Cassie moved past the privacy wall and came toward her. "Hey," Cassie said, softly. "You okay?"

"My evil father just laid a smackdown on us that took the old guys coming to finish up; what do you think?" Rose asked in a sullen tone.

"I think you and Jericho did a fantastic job trying to beat him," Cassie said honestly. She glanced at the dye. "Is that why you're looking at changing your hair? Because of him?"

"What's it matter if I am?" Rose asked defensively.

"Well, it's your choice, but I think it would be a mistake." Cassie didn't flinch from the flare of Rose's temper; she had to contend with her own, fueled by Ares's wrath after all. "I like your hair, for one. For two? You're a solid reminder that things can get bad, and we can still recover. Three? You're admitting he's got power over you. Four?" And for this, Cassie picked up the dye, looked at the color, and wrinkled her nose. "You really want Donna's hair color?"

Rose actually cracked a smile at that tone in Cassie's voice. Things between Cassie and Donna had been a little tense after all. And everyone knew Rose had issues with Donna. "I was thinking of my mom and my heritage," she admitted. "Stop being his, stop being not-Asian to so many people."

Cassie shook her head at that. "You are what's in your heart. You want this to be closer to your mom, to your roots, go for it. But if you only want to do it because he's a psychopath, I say spite him and shine with what you have, show the world he's the screw-up, and you're the right one."

"Yeah? You think I can?" Rose wasn't so sure, but she and Cassie had come so far, and the Wonder Priss's confidence seemed to rub off on people.

"I do," Cassie told her firmly. "Besides, with all the brunettes around here, we fair-haired ones gotta stick together, right?"

Rose rolled her eye, and shook her head. "I'll take my white over your blondie-locks any day of the week, Wonder Priss."

It set them both to laughing, but the dye went in a locker, to be left for some other existential crisis, while the girls got cleaned up and went to be themselves, together.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Restless Reunions and Revelations](https://archiveofourown.org/works/726593) by [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly)
  * [Wager](https://archiveofourown.org/works/728954) by [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly)




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